Twisted (Charlie Weasley)

Chapter Fifty-Three

Throughout the course of the war and within life in general we had all experienced pain and loss. We had memorized lists of those we could no longer speak to, we had mourned for those we had lost. It was impossible to come up with a beginning of where the list began... Gideon and Fabian Prewett, they had died in the first war... but so had the McKinnon family. Alice and Frank Longbottom had been tortured into insanity, which could be argued as a fate far worse than death itself. A portion of the Bones family had been wiped out by death eaters as well long before I had been a part of the war, or at least an acting member. We had lost Cedric Diggory, who was barely an adult because he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sirius had been stolen away from us by my mother. Dumbledore had fallen and that's when we knew things were really going to shit... and Mad Eye had been dragged down as well. There had already been so many deaths. Deaths I did not want to think about, deaths I never wanted to happen... and yet, even in these unpredictable times, I never could have even begun to predict the death of Harry Potter. The boy who was meant to be our saviour, the boy we were meant to put our trust in, lay crumpled and broken in the arms of Hagrid.

The words had barely left Voldemort's lips and our people were already in pain. We slowly made our way out of the castle, ready to fight again, ready to see that the wicked man was lying and that Harry was fine. That it was all just a ruse to bring us down... but there Harry laid in the arms of Hagrid. He was still. So still I thought he was sleeping, because I couldn't cope with the fact that yet another person in my life who had come to mean something to me was indeed dead.

Our silence was broken by the most horrible scream, "NO!"

Never did could I have pictured Professor McGonagall losing her composure. During my school years, and the time I had spent with her since she had been as stern faced as ever. It was rare for emotion to slip through what seemed to be her protective mask, but the sight of her student seemed to send her walls shattering down. I had never heard any noise that sounded so grief stricken... but all those thoughts were shaken away by the horrible laugh of my mother. I wasn't sure who had held me back, who had grabbed my wrist to stop me when they saw I was about to dive in to attack, but they didn't let go of it even after I had relaxed.

Everyone seemed to be screaming now. It felt like everyone around me was being tortured with the harshest of the cruciatous curse, and there was nothing that I could do to protect them. To stop them from feeling the pain that they were in. The hand still held onto my wrist, and I felt as though this was just as much a comfort to them as it was to me.

I was almost sick when his body was laid down at the feet of Voldemort, like he was implying he was better than Harry... that Harry didn't deserve any better. It was wrong. It made my stomach churn and my head ache. I felt dizzy with rage as he laid on the ground at the mans feet, the man who had done so much to my life that I knew I would never be able to forget his name. It would be a name that would cause me pain for the rest of my life no matter how much time had passed from the days I was forced to sit before him like the obedient little girl my parents had wanted me to be.

The humiliation went on. The mocking went on. He moved on from Harry to Neville Longbottom, who instantly became one of the bravest people I knew as he stepped forward in attempt to stand against Voldemort... and then chopped the head off of the damn snake and chaos ensued... and for the first time in what seemed like forever the hand let go of my wrist. I quickly turned around, and saw no one there... but for a moment I swore I smelt the cologne and cigars that belonged to the first man I had ever been able to trust. Mad Eye Moody.

A smile grin spread across my face as I gripped my wand tightly, "Constant Vigilance!" And then I followed all of my peers into battle once more, this time with a new drive than I had held previously, not knowing once again how much everything in my life was about to change.